


emergency contact

by thursdayknight



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Asexual Billy Hargrove, Asexual Will Byers, Bisexual Steve Harrington, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, because I am just having these feelings today apparently, this fic has serious homophobia and violence in it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:35:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21794656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thursdayknight/pseuds/thursdayknight
Summary: You're born with your soulmate's name on your arm, but both Will and Billy think they're broken 'cause they think they have their own name on their arm and your soulmate tattoo is supposed to do things when you meet your soulmate and neither of theirs has ever reacted and they've been friends for years, so that has to mean they're broken, right?
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Will Byers
Comments: 10
Kudos: 50
Collections: Stranger Things ace fic collection





	emergency contact

**Author's Note:**

  * For [trashcangimmick](https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashcangimmick/gifts).



> So I wrote a lot of soft Christmas fluff and then this happened. It's... something. Also, tw for violence and homophobia and scenes in hospitals. It ends well, but, just, yeah.
> 
> I don't know how this came out of the blender that is my brain.

Will's in the middle of his psych 200 class when he gets the call that has him skittering up and out the door, leaving his notebook behind in his haste to get out. 

_Billy's in the hospital. He got in a fight._ The nurse on the phone doesn't say with who, just that he got brought in by some other boy and that he's covered head to toe in bruises, one of his eyes is swollen shut and he's probably got several broken ribs.

Will calls Steve from the parking lot only to find out that Steve's already at the hospital, 'cause Steve was the boy who brought Billy there in the first place, 'cause it turns out they'd gone to the campus bar after class to get a drink and Steve had been wearing his checkmark t-shirt, the one with the check boxes that says _boys / girls / everybody's cute_ with all the check boxes ticked and some asshole had decided to start shit with him over it and Billy being Billy, of course, he'd said that he's gay too, so if they were gonna fuck with anybody it should be someone who can fight and that had made the guy back down. Or so Steve had thought, until he'd found Billy in the alley behind their just off campus apartment building an hour ago, beaten and bleeding and barely conscious. 

"Turns out," Steve grits out, "They didn't let it go, they just waited until I left, followed him and jumped him. And I know it had to be more than one guy because there's no way he'd look like this if it wasn't, you know him, he's a better fighter than -" Steve gulps loudly enough Will can hear it over the phone. "I should never have left him, I should never have -" Steve stops short again and this time it has Will stopping, too. Steve sounds like he's about to break and Will is standing in the middle of the parking lot, he can't find his car, one of his best friends sounds like he's about to break and the other one is in the hospital. Will starts to shake. He can't deal with this. He doesn't know what he's supposed to do. He can't deal with this. _He can't._

"Hey, man, you alright?"

Will turns around to find Max standing behind him, winter wind whipping her hair around her face like it's actual fire and it cracks Will straight down the middle. 

"Did they not -" Will can't get the words out and he's still got Steve on the phone so Steve thinks he's still talking to him. 

"Did who not what?" Steve asks just as Max gives him a confused look.

"I, uh," Will says, not sure at first which one of them he's talking to. "I, uh," he says again, brain faltering, going as blank and as bleak and as empty as this parking lot is; this parking lot he still can't find his car in even though it's well past six and almost everyone has cleared out for the day. 

"Dude, you can't freak out, I'm freaking out, one of us has to hold it together and it's not gonna be me, not after this," Steve's saying in Will's ear as Max is stepping forward to put her hands on Will's shoulders.

"Will," she says, her voice all calm reassurance that Will knows is going to dissolve and disappear after she finds out what's happened. "What's going on?" 

"Is that Max?" 

Will nods, like Steve can see him as he says to Max, "Billy's in the hospital."

Max groans like an animal that's just been shot and grabs Will's phone, barks at Steve, "What'd he do?" like this is a day she's been waiting for since the day Billy became her brother. 

Steve tells her and Will watches her face twist into a snarl, watches her tell Steve they're on their way and watches her end the conversation and shut his phone off. 

"I'm driving," she says. "Give me your keys." Without a thought Will agrees, hands them over and stumbles along behind her as she marches over to his car, which is parked at the other end of the lot, right in plain sight.

They're halfway to the hospital before Max barks out, "My phone is dead," leaving Will to be the confused one this time. 

"Huh?"

"I'm Billy's other emergency contact but my phone is dead, so they couldn't call me," she says and Will can practically hear the way her teeth are grinding together. 

"Oh."

They're both silent the rest of the way there after that, Max clearly trying not to fly into a rage and Will clearly trying not to shatter into a million pieces. They manage, somehow, or at least mostly they do, they manage enough to get there anyway and Will follows behind Max as she storms into the hospital, demanding to know which room her brother is in. A nurse behind a big desk tells her and she grabs Will by the wrist, drags him along as she marches, faster now, down the hall. 

Billy's in a sectioned off little half room type thing just past the ER and Steve's already there, sitting in one of the chairs by the bed and looking just absolutely devastated. 

And then there's Billy and Billy's a wreck, just like the nurse on the phone had said. One of his eyes is swollen shut and it's this screaming, angry, furious red and so are his knuckles, they're even scraped raw in some places and Will doesn't want to but he can't avoid picturing how many other spots on Billy's body must be scraped raw like that, can imagine the sound Billy's skin must have made as it scraped across the concrete as his attackers shoved him down; he wonders how much blood must have been on Billy's clothes, thinks it must have been a lot, is glad they had Billy change into one of those paper-thin little hospital gowns so he doesn't have to see it. 

And then his eyes connect with Billy's one good one and there's this itch that starts just over the name printed on his arm, the one Will always thought was a mistake, always thought meant he was broken and he's being dragged forward by something that's not his own willpower, that doesn't even feel like it's his own legs just as Billy is saying, "Hey, come here," like Will's not already halfway there, and the sides aren't up on the bed so Will sits down right next to Billy and grabs his hand.

And Billy turns his hand over to reveal on the top of his arm, a name printed in a sprawling, loopy script, _William,_ and it's bright red like it's on fire. Will brings up his other hand, the one not clutching Billy's, the one that's now burning like something caustic has been poured over it, and flips it over to reveal the name printed on his arm in a sharp, blocky font, _William,_ and it's lit on fire, too, bright red in just the same way. 

He looks up at Billy. "I-" he starts, but any words he might have said are swallowed up by the searing kiss Billy presses to his lips. 

The kiss is everything, it drags the whole world away until Will forgets where they are, forgets what happened today, forgets _everything._ Or at least he does until Max clears her throat and says, "If you guys are gonna _do that_ do you think you could at least wait until we're out of the hospital?"

And this makes Will break the kiss, makes him turn around and say, "I don't _do that_ ," because he can't not. 

And Billy says, "Come on Max, you know better than that," because _he can't not, either._

Max groans and Will is sure she's doing something else like rolling her eyes or crossing her arms over her chest or whatever, but he doesn't see it because he's too busy turning back to Billy, is too busy kissing him again, is too busy running his thumbs over Billy's cheeks, running his hands over his neck, over any part of Billy he can reach like he plans on memorizing every inch, because he _does._ And Billy groans in pain as Will's hands rove over all of his bruises, he groans, but he doesn't _stop,_ instead he just wraps his big, strong hands up in Will's hair and Will fights to ignore the scratch of the IV planted in the top of one of Billy's hands, he tries, but it makes him shake, makes him shudder because it's all too stark a reminder of everything he almost missed out on. On how much worse this could have been. 

"We'll just leave you two alone for a bit, then," Steve says, and this time Will just waves him off, unable to break the kiss. Because he isn't broken, after all. Because there is someone for him, because the universe hadn't made a mistake; he's been gifted, been given the most beautiful boy he's ever seen, the most beautiful boy in the whole entire world. The most beautiful boy in the whole entire world is his, that's what this kiss means. They just… needed time. Time to know each other, time to trust each other. That's all. They're not broken. It just took them time. 


End file.
